Select Infrastructure, the owner of the popular South Delhi mall, has approached the Bombay High Court pleading that the 25,000 square feet space it leased to Kishore Biyani's Pantaloon Retail is not transferable to any other party.

"Our agreement does not allow any third-party interest creation," says a person close to matter at Select Infrastructure. "The space we have licensed to Pantaloon is not transferable." Spokespersons for both Pantaloon Retail and Select Infrastructure did not respond to e-mailed questionnaires till late on Thursday.

Pantaloons had leased the space in Select Citywalk when the mall opened for business in 2007. The nine-year-old lease expires in 2016. Analysts say the mall owner wants to kick out its so-called anchor tenant as several international brands including Starbucks, Gap, H&M and Uniqlo have lined up for space in one of the most successful malls in the capital. "It could be the brand not doing so well in that mall or there could a relationship issue," the head of a foreign real estate consultancy said on condition of anonymity. "It could be a good excuse for the mall to kick them out and rent it out for a new tenant on the prevailing current market rent," he added.

Select Infrastructure has accused Pantaloon Retail of keeping the mall owner "out of the loop" on the sell-off of Pantaloons department store chain to Aditya Birla Nuvo and the chain's proposed merger with Peter England Fashions & Retail Ltd.

"We are saying Pantaloon has not followed the standard procedure required for such demerger (of a retail chain)," a person with direct knowledge of the situation said. "We did not receive any notice to that effect from them as we are also a creditor," he added.

Hemant Sethi, a lawyer representing Pantaloon Retail, contested this, saying the company has followed all procedures required for any merger process in a court including announcement to that effect in newspapers. "The scheme is over now and all procedures were complied with. Otherwise, the court would not have cleared the merger," he said, adding the Bombay court approved the amalgamation of Pantaloons department store with Peter England Fashions a month ago. NPS Chawla, the lawyer representing the mall owner, declined to comment.

The Bombay High Court, while hearing the case on April 5, has asked Select Infrastructure to make Peter England Fashions, the Aditya Birla Nuvo unit that is merging Pantaloons' assets with itself, also as a respondent party to the case and to file an amended application before the next date of hearing on April 17.